The Nudist Story

THE NUDIST STORY is your garden-variety nudie flick, with a threadbare plot of sorts to keep the momentum going and more than half the running time devoted to cinema verite-style footage of men and women going about their business at a nudist camp. It was made by the 'British Sunbathing Association' and feels at times like a propaganda flick; you can guess the kind of viewers this type of film attracted.

Lead actress Shelly Martin puts in a surprisingly good performance in the leading role as a prim and proper young woman who treats the idea of nudist camps with the usual prejudice. When she inherits one and begins to learn more about it, her eyes are opened to a very different world. A love triangle sub-plot of sorts serves to drag out the short running time a little further, while topless nudity from woman after woman - not all of them young and nubile either - is the order of the day. It's nothing more than a forgettable fluff piece in retrospect.

This title has been available for quite some time from Something Weird Video under the title For Members only, The Nudist Story. This was the original complete title in the UK. Film quality is excellent. The opening credits briefly switch from the original to the title page of "Pussycat Paradise" and then back to the original. That was a brief alternate title in the mid to later 60s.

I don't have any idea how long this movie has been available, but it was a happy shock to learn of it's original British title, Google it, and discovery that it has been here for some time.

Beyond the opening credits, the film remains complete and beautiful quality. There is even a film trailer after the end of the feature.

Contrary to a previous review on IMDB from 2006, the recent 2017~2019 re-release of this film under the title Pussycats Paradise (1960) by Sprocket Flicks for Amazon Prime Video is of terrible quality with film grain, scratches and splotches, and has been SEVERELY cut down to a mere 69 minutes from its original 90 minute runtime. As you can imagine, it has been scrubbed clean of smut, but also a great deal of continuity and story. You are taken on a wild journey of "how did we get here now?" around every bend, with entire segments of the character's lives obliterated for the sake of preserving their modesty. Especially the female characters in the camp, who can barely get in a speaking role on screen because their chests are so naughty.

I rate this as 6 stars, out of respect for the film as a whole as it was clearly well written and directed, with a quality cast and nice storyline. I just hope to see it some day, in its full unabashed glory. I'm very disappointed, because it was otherwise rather good.

It is rather strange that TPTV has given this film a 18 rating but when it was shown in cinemas it was given an A certificate which meant that children under 16 could view it if accompanied by an adult. It has been reclassified as a 15 by the BBFC.

Films such as this would often be shown at the Cinephone Cinema, opposite Selfridges. It would be supporting a Bridgette Bardot X certificate film.

This film is so mildly inoffensive and rather amateur and about as erotic as cold rice pudding.

Stephen Blake - "Have you ever been to a nudist camp Miss Robinson?" Jane Robinson - "Certainly not!" "The Nudist Story" is a 1960 British B movie, nicely shot in colour. Jane is a young business woman who inherits her Grandfather's nudist camp, at first she is quite shocked but her opinion changes when she falls in love with Stephen, a lawyer and secretary of said club. I can think of three different driving factors behind this movie - 1. It presents a case for public acceptance of nudist clubs (which is does well). 2. It is a drama/love story. 3. It is an excuse to show of lots of naked flesh. Though the latter is tastefully done I could imagine plenty of men in long coats going to the cinema to see this for a dose of titillation! The budget was obviously quite low, some of the sets look very studio bound and the acting varies from acceptable to poor (Gloria, who tries to put a stop to Jane and Stephen's romance, is played but a very wooden - though attractive - French actress). "Highlights" (for wants of a better word) include watching two couples perform synchronised (or at least they try to be) swimming, seeing Jane strip off for the first time and a song and dance segment. This last bit has the happy campers perform cheesy singing and dancing to band music despite no band being there, and it does drag on. In the UK the movie is rated BBFC 15 yet the excellent Talking Pictures TV screened it with an 18. That was very odd as there is nothing sexual or explicit about this harmless movie, there are even children in the cast, naked along with adults but all quite innocent. I had never heard of this film before and it does not appear in any of my movie books. As something of a curiosity I found it to be a fairly entertaining watch, for a movie made in Britain in 1960 I was surprised by the amount of flesh on display. For people interested in the history of "skin flicks" this is recommended viewing.